Rating: 
Summary: a competent early Dennis Lehane novel; not his best though..
Review: 'A Drink Before the War' is the first of several crime novels by Dennis Lehane involving two young Boston private investigators, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. As will all Lehane novels the writing is uniformly good, the characterizations believable, and the dialogue sharp. However 'A Drink Before the War', a story about gang warfare and corrupt politicians, is somewhat preachy in tone. I found all the overt rascism to be a bit over-dramatized, the anti-rascism rhetoric to be tiresome. In between Lehane throws in plenty of violence and ugliness. While certainly a competent read it was gratuitously nasty. In the end I felt bad for being a white American, ... was that the point of the book?
Bottom line: good, but too much of hate-fest. For Lehane fans only.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: This book is an interesting and fun mix of smarty pants PIs, scum politicians and gang members. Throw in a few cops and Boston for backround and you have a wonderful book. One very small problem is that the author does not seem to know much about firearms. That having been said, don't miss this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Kept me engaged
Review: The first chapter was so funny, right from the start it got me into the story. It opens with the main character, and narrator, Patrick Kenzie the detective going on a meeting at an upscale hotel (with a dress code I might add, very important theme of the book I guess) with three politicians who are eager to get his help tracking down a missing cleaning lady whom they assume stole some documents of theirs. One look at her dark skin, and right away, Kenzie starts going off on racism in the State house and in the city in general. The thoughts going through Kenzie's head during this meeting are great, like his observations. Very funny. His musings on politicians and the "stepford wife" waitresses are great. One of my favorite quotes comes later in the book though when Kenzie thinks to himself "I wanted to ask how anyone could be a 'strong, silent voice', but I figured it might reveal my lack of political savvy". The book is about a gang war in Boston between a father and a son and also about corruption and politics. I mean, the book is so darkly humorous in parts that I can forgive certain cliches and trivial ramblings. Kenzie is a fascinating character, if not for the way he is developed as a person (he goes on and on about his horrible childhood at the hands of his abusive father and it is at times just over-the-top), then for the funny things that come out of his mouth. Kenzie is such an elitist, a womanizer ("Someone, I think it was Lauren, called to make nasty promises concerning a pair of rusty scissors...") spending most of his time flirting with his partner ("She looked at me a couple of times, guessed what I was thinking, and called me a perv. One of those times I was actually having a purely innocent thought about my long-distance phone service, but there've been so many other times it sort of made up for it")and a real creep sometimes too. There are times when he seems very much a hypocrite, or maybe I'm wrong. That's ok, I like hypocritical characters and Lehane is great at creating hypocritical (or rather complex, to put it nicely) characters. And on top of that his attacks on popular culture (hilarious as they may be) come non-stop. "From inside I could hear glasses clinking...and a Bon Jovi song coming off the jukebox. I amended that last thought; maybe it was just a stereo tuned to a radio station and no one inside had actually paid money to listen to Bon Jovi" and "My luck was good tonight, though. I felt it the moment the Bon Jovi song ended" and on and on about musicians who sound like they're on "thorazine". And the book is filled with dry quips about how racist everyone is and how evil politicians are. Here's a quote that is so bad, and yet I just can't stop thinking about it. I don't know if it's good bad or bad bad, I just know it's bad. Let me just say, subtlety is not the virtue of this book. Kenzie says about politicians "They **** us morning, noon, and night..." and then he goes on to say that society accepts this "for the comforting veneers of 'civilization' and 'security', the false idols of our twentieth-century wet dream." And that's just one segment of it, there's more on Kenzie pondering about what a rotten place the world is and about politicians and their houses on the beach and the city out drowning in the ocean and stuff like that. The story deals with child molestation cover-ups as well as murder, some mention of prostitution and drug selling and stuff, offensive language and slurs. I don't think there are many words that are left out. If you don't mind this it's a good book. It just holds nothing back and there are some cliches and there were parts where I thought, "Oh please". Some parts were kind of ridiculous. But here's one example of something I respected very much. Kenzie's partner Angie is in an abusive marriage, and Lehane deals with that in such an original way considering the many crappy exploitative domestic abuse novels I've read. And there's some interesting insights in here, mostly the darkly humorous ones. I should add that Lehane's books are full of very good dialogue and they really stand out from the other crime books I've read. They're the best of the genre from what I've experienced, but then again I haven't read too many books from this kind of genre.
So I don't know really what to say about this book except that it was entertaining for the most part and just engaging in a shocking sort of way.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best first novels of all time
Review: Just an amazing experience reading this novel. Just read the first couple of pages and you know Lehane can write. The dialog is up there with Elmore Leonard as the best in the business. Do yourself a favorite and pick up this noir/crime masterpiece.
Rating:
Summary: Great Writer
Review: Dennis Lehane is my new favorite author. Having previously read Shutter Island and seen the movie Mystic River, drew me in. A Drink Before the War- is one of the best first author books I have read. Very good characters will keep you up nights reading this one. I have ordered the sequels to this series, having enjoyed this one. Keep up the good work.
Rating:
Summary: Witty and Gritty
Review: A Drink Before The War is an exciting and thrilling novel which fuses so many different elements; crime, violence, romance and humour. I read the book really quickly because it was so compelling and found myself laughing out loud at the one-liners. The main character Patrick Kenzie tells the story in first person narrative. He gets more and more interesting and complex as the book progresses, and the insights into his childhood were fantastic. This book is the start of the Kenzie/Gennaro series, and it really is very promising. I've already read the last in the series - Prayers for Rain, and I can't wait to read the others to see what happens to them in between. I thought Angie Gennaro, Patrick's PI partner and unrequited (?) love, was fantastic. Other reviews have commented that the sparks between them didn't fly, but I feel the exact opposite. I thought the romance between them was realistic and great. The part near the end where they kiss after the bomb scare was really touching. There was one point where Patrick says `At that moment, I think I knew what love was', when Angie smiled at him. Perfect :-) Overall this is a fantastic book which is witty and gritty. From a personal perspective, I was a little disturbed by just how violent it was sometimes. One particular scene where Patrick and Angie listen to someone being tortured on a cassette recording was particularly horrific. On reflection I think the book needed some of this violence to justify the lengths that Patrick and Angie go to later on, and to show the reader how bad the situation in the neighbourhood really was. In other words, the violence was not gratuitous, but I didn't like it either. I would recommend this to those who want to read down-to-earth crime and have a good laugh at the same time. JoAnne
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: Truly a fantastic debut. I picked up this book from the library because Mystic River wasn't in. I figured I'd get a taste of Lehane's writing. What I got was a feast of a book. An incredibly engrossing plot and unforgettable characters. I instantly grew attached to Kenzie and Gerarro. These characters are so real you'd think you've known them for years. In addition, the supporting characters are equally unforgettable. I'm especially impressed with the unstable Bubba Rogowski. The book starts with a bang and doesn't stop until the last word. It's a short book to begin with (a little over 250 pages), and the fast-paced writing makes it a very quick read. But, I felt like I had read an epic novel. I was ecstatic to see that there were four more novels in the series...with more to come, hopefully. I strongly recommend this book. Pick it up and sit down for a violent, wild ride with characters you will want to meet again and again.
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